Living with an Empathic Child

by Karen Goode

Empathy is what makes other people matter to us and reminds us to acknowledge the people around us as we understand and share their feelings. Empathy exists in early mother-infant bonding. Even before birth, a baby in the womb is sensitive to the mother’s feelings, whether positive, neutral or negative. Once born, a baby shows receptivity to parents’ anger, tension, and depression, as well as to their caring, responsiveness and love. You’ve probably noticed how they imitate your facial expressions and smile in response to your smile. They also may cry if they hear another baby cry. This type of response is a step in the development of empathy and the ability to share the feelings of another person.

Babies absorb the mental and emotional energy of the people around them. They don’t filter anything; they simply receive. As a child ages, this empathic tendency may increase and get out of control. Some children pick up the emotions, energy, or thoughts of others to the degree that it becomes overwhelming and interrupts the development of their social and emotional life. Because these children do not know how to set personal boundaries (or that they need to), they do not realize when they are in another person’s mental or emotional space, nor how invasive this can be to that person. It can also lower the child’s own vibrational level.

An empath is sensitive to what is obvious as well as unseen things such as ghosts and the thoughts, emotions, and illnesses they sense around them. Empaths may get hunches, see mental pictures, hear voices, or have a gut feeling that supplies hidden information about people and situations. They may also get a physical sensation in their body that lets them know where another person is afflicted or suffering.

You may have heard of Indigo Children or Crystal Kids who have intuitive gifts that surprise or even astound adults. These empathic children easily pick up the feelings and thoughts of adults and others as they unconsciously reach into human and spirit energy fields to gather information and understand things around them. Seeing with their spiritual eyes, feeling with their spiritual senses, hearing with their spiritual ears, they may give information about a past life, tell of events before they happen, see ghosts, or know something about another person or situation that no one else does. Today, as many as one in four children have this ability and are always tuned into the higher frequency.

Being an empath is very draining for an adult. Just imagine what it feels like to be an intuitive or empathic child and not have the language to explain your experiences to your parents or teachers. A child who is overloaded with the energy of others may have on-going illnesses, show depressive episodes, lash out in anger, cry without reason, or try to “fix” things between adults who argue or do not get along well. A child or teen who sees or hears in the spirit realm may act out because he or she feels overwhelmed and does not know how to express what he or she is experiencing. The problem is compounded when adults will not listen, try to hush the child, or refuse to believe the child’s report of psychic incidents.

We do our intuitive children a great injustice when we invalidate their experiences and intuitive abilities. Yet many parents simply don't know what to do with kids who see or hear spirits, talk about a deceased relative they never met in body, give clues into past lives, predict future events, or know some family secret they haven’t been privy to. In some cases, the “hushing” parent also has some paranormal gifts that he or she is not comfortable talking about. Maybe the child’s parents were shushed by their parents and are simply mimicking the parenting role model they were given. As parents, teachers, and counselors, we need to teach children how to properly use this empathic gift, but many adults do not trust their own intuition and therefore are unlikely to recognize their children’s spiritual abilities. Empathic kids need someone they can talk to. They need information on how to keep their auras clear, to open and shut their intuitive abilities at will, and set energetic boundaries. Where do adults go to learn how to help these empathic kids and teens?

The more you read and study this topic, the better you will be able to answer your children’s questions. To help you help the empathic children in your life develop their intuition, watch for

Whose Stuff is This? Finding Freedom from the Detrimental Thoughts, Feelings, and Energy of Those Around You co-written with Yvonne Perry. www.tinyurl.com/WhoseStuff.

Dr. Caron Goode is the award-winning author of Raising Intuitive Children and the international best-seller, Kids Who See Ghosts, guide them through their fear. Dr. Goode is the founder of the Academy for Coaching Parents (acpi.biz) that trains and certifies professional parenting coaches. Contact Dr. Goode at <caron30 @ gmail.com>.